WordPress has released an upgrade for the popular, self-hosted blogging platform. Unlike the last few WordPress upgrades, which focused on improving developer tools, WordPress 3.2 is primarily about changes ordinary users will appreciate. The revamped admin section, for instance, offers a new “distraction-free,” full screen editor, and, as we noted earlier, this version finally drops support for Internet Explorer 6.

The theme for WordPress’ latest incarnation is “faster and lighter.” That’s reflected in new tools like the simplified admin interface, which offers a fullscreen editor mode. The fullscreen mode is modeled on the interface found in writing apps like WriteRoom or OmmWriter, where the focus is primarily the text, and not the bells and whistles on the main new post page.

Another aspect of the faster and lighter motto for WordPress 3.2 means eliminating the cruft, also known as dropping support for IE 6. That won’t of course affect your site’s visitors (unless your theme has dropped IE 6), but it does mean that the WordPress 3.2 admin won’t work in IE 6, something to keep in mind if you’re upgrading a site that has numerous admin users.

If you’re really into fireworks, maybe you should move you butt to any square state. But whatever you do, don’t move to New York, New Jersey, Delaware or Massachusetts. They have a total ban. The awesomerest state is South Carolina. More »

A popular video late this week was this news clip of the new bridge in Qingdao, China that’s described as the world’s longest across seawater. Being that it’s a long holiday weekend in the United States, we got curious to know more about YouTube’s “longest” videos.

We’re not looking at the literal longest videos — though if you’re interested, here’s 3.5 hours of Nyan Cat. Instead, we looked into YouTube’s data to pull a few of the most-viewed videos of things, actions, and events that were described as “the longest ___.”